Cancer is generally a disease of the intracellular signalling system, or signal transduction mechanism. Cells receive instructions from many extracellular sources, instructing them to either proliferate or not to proliferate. The purpose of the signal transduction system is to receive these and other signals at the cell surface, get them into the cell, and then pass the signals on to the nuceleus, the cytoskeleton, and transport and protein synthesis machinery. The most common cause of cancer is a series of defects, either in these proteins, when they are mutated, or in the regulation of the quantity of the protein in the cell such that it is over or under produced. Most often, there are key lesions in the cell which lead to a constitutive state whereby the cell nucleus receives a signal to proliferate, when this signal is not actually present. This can occur through a variety of mechanisms. Sometimes the cell may start to produce an authentic growth factor for its own receptors when it should not, the so-called autocrine loop mechanism. Mutations to the cell surface receptors, which usually signal into the cell by means of tyrosine kinases, can lead to activation of the kinase in the absence of ligand, and passing of a signal which is not really there. Alternatively, many surface kinases can be overexpressed on the cell surface leading to an inappropriately strong response to a weak signal. There are many levels inside the cell at which mutation or overexpression can lead to the same spurious signal arising in the cell, and there are many other kinds of signalling defect involved in cancer. This invention touches upon cancers which are driven by the three mechanisms just described, and which involve cell surface receptors of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase family (EGFR). This family consists of the EGF receptor (also known as Erb-B1), the Erb-B2 receptor, and its constituitively active oncoprotein mutant Neu, the Erb-B3 receptor and the Erb-B4 receptor. Additionally, other biological processes driven through members of the EGF family of receptors can also be treated by compounds of the invention described below.
The EGFR has as its two most important ligands Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) and Transforming Growth Factor alpha (TGFalpha). The receptors appear to have only minor functions in adult humans, but are apparently implicated in the disease process of a large portion of all cancers, especially colon and breast cancer. The closely related Erb-B2 Erb-B3 and Erb-B4 receptors have a family of Heregulins as their major ligands, and receptor overexpression and mutation have been unequivocally demonstrated as the major risk factor in poor prognosis breast cancer. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that all four of the members of this family of receptors can form heterodimeric signalling complexes with other members of the family, and that this can lead to synergistic transforming capacity if more than one member of the family is overexpressed in a malignancy. Overexpression of more than one family member has been shown to be relatively common in human malignancies.
The proliferative skin disease psoriasis has no good cure at present. It is often treated by anticancer agents such as methotrexate, which have very serious side effects, and which are not very effective at the toxicity-limited doses which have to be used. It is believed that TGFalpha is the major growth factor overproduced in psoriasis, since 50% of transgenic mice which overexpress TGF alpha develop psoriasis. This suggests that a good inhibitor of EGFR signalling could be used as an antipsoriatic agent, preferably, but not necessarily, by topical dosing.
EGF is a potent mitogen for renal tubule cells. Fourfold increases in both EGF urinary secretion and EGF mRNA have been noted in mice with early stage streptozoicin-induced diabetes. In addition increased expression of the EGFR has been noted in patients with proliferative glomerulonephritis (Roychaudhury et al. Pathology 1993, 25, 327). The compounds of the current invention should be useful in treating both proliferative glomerulonephritis and diabetes-induced renal disease.
Chronic pancreatitis in patients has been reported to correlate with large increases in expression for both EGFR and TGF alpha. (Korc et al. Gut 1994, 35, 1468). In patients showing a more severe form of the disease, typified by an enlargement of the head of the pancreas, there was also shown to be overexpression of the erb-B2 receptor (Friess et al. Ann. Surg. 1994, 220, 183). The compounds of the current invention should prove useful in the treatment of pancreatitis.
In the processes of blastocyte maturation, blastocyte implantation into the uterine endometrium, and other periimplantation events, uterine tissues produce EGF and TGF alpha (Taga Nippon Sanka Fujinka Gakkai Zasshi 1992, 44, 939), have elevated levels of EGFR (Brown et al. Endocrinology, 1989, 124, 2882), and may well be induced to produce heparin-binding EGF by the proximity of the developing, but not arrested, blastocyte (Das et al. Development 1994, 120, 1071). In turn the blastocyte has quite a high level of TGF alpha and EGFR expression (Adamson Mol. Reprod. Dev. 1990, 27, 16). Surgical removal of the submandibular glands, the major site of EGF secretion in the body, and treatment with anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies both greatly reduce fertility in mice (Tsutsumi et al. J. Endocrinology 1993, 138, 437), by reducing successful blastocyte implantation. Therefore, compounds of the current invention should prove to have useful contraceptive properties.
PCT patent application Nos. WO92/07844 published May 14, 1992 and WO92/14716 published Sep. 3, 1992 describe 2,4-diaminoquinazoline as potentiators of chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of cancer.
PCT published application No. WO92/20642 published Nov. 26, 1992 discloses bismono- and bicyclic aryl and heteroaryl compounds which inhibit EGF and/or PDGF receptor tyrosine kinase.
It is an object of the present invention to inhibit the mitogenic effects of epidermal growth factor utilizing an effective amount of bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives.
It is another object of the present invention to describe bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives, as inhibitors of the EGF, Erb-B2 and Erb-B4 receptor tyrosine kinases.
It is yet another object of the present invention to describe bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives, that are useful at low dosages as inhibitors of EGF-induced mitogenesis. This therefore leads to a further object of compounds having extremely low cytotoxicity.
It is a further object of the present invention to describe bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives, that are useful in suppressing tumors, especially breast cancers, where mitogenesis is heavily driven by EGFR family members.
It is another object of the present invention to describe bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives, that have utility as chronic therapy as inhibitors of EGF-induced responses.
It is another object of the current invention to describe bicyclic pyrimidine derivatives, in particular fused heterocyclic pyrimidine derivatives, that have utility as therapeutic agents against proliferative overgrowth diseases, including but not limited to, synovial pannus invasion in arthritis, vascular restenosis, psoriasis and angiogenesis. The compounds disclosed herein also are useful to treat pancreatitis and kidney disease and as a contraceptive agent.